


a cricket choir in the background

by amosanguis



Category: American West RPF, Billy the Kid RPF, The American West (2016)
Genre: Demon Billy the Kid, Drabble, M/M, Title from a Country Song, unrelated ficlets, word vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:34:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23190961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: In another life, Billy dies aged 82 – surrounded by the children of his adopted sons, boys who’re just as wild and lost as he’d been.In this life--
Relationships: Henry "Billy the Kid" McCarty/John Henry Tunstall
Comments: 7
Kudos: 7





	1. Drabble #1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Heartbeat" by Carrie Underwood
> 
> Not all works will be drabbles - this is mostly a collection of word vomit because I have a lot of feelings about the Billy from _The American West_ docuseries.

In another life, Billy dies aged 82 – surrounded by the children of his adopted sons, boys who’re just as wild and lost as he’d been. They cry at his bedside and beg for one more story of the good ol’ days.

In another life.

In this life, Billy is 20 when he sees his love shot down dead and is 21 when he himself chokes on a bullet. He’s got a series of tally marks next to his name in the papers and there’s no one to mourn his loss aside from a sheriff who considered Billy his greatest kill.


	2. Drabble #2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> not related to the first chapter - this is just additional word vomit.

His hands drip with blood.

**_Those cattle you have belong to John Tunstall._ **

His chest heaves.

**_You’ve got a lot of men. You got room for one more?_ **

His horse prances and tosses its head, gunsmoke hanging heavy in the air.

**_Don’t do anything stupid, son._ **

Billy hadn’t wanted this. Hadn’t wanted none of it. But then greed and pride had driven men to cut down the wrong person – and they paid for it. Billy saw to it personally.

**_One day, they’re gonna come for me._ **

**_If they do, I’ll kill them all._ **

**_Will you?_ **

Billy’s hands drip with blood.


	3. Demon Billy AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy is Death wearing a child’s face. He is the hangman cometh.

Billy is Death wearing a child’s face.

He is the hangman cometh.

He descends on a town and paints it red, gnashes his teeth until the perpetually muddy main street is littered with the dead.

Then, in the dark of night, when he’s alone on the plains he points his face to the moon, and he screams for his love lost.

Some of them cry for mercy.

Some of them face their death with stoicism.

Some of them taunt him with hell.

Those last ones? They’re the ones Billy flashes his eyes at. Says to them, “I’ll see you there.” Then Billy laughs at their fear before he slashes their throat just as they start screaming.

The papers call him a devil and he smirks, and, to no one in particular, says, “They’ve no idea.”

The law puts him in chains before he breaks them and then he howls as he spreads hell-black leather wings large enough to blot out the sun. In the space of a blink, he’s on that little sheriff and his posse and devours them whole, floods the prairie with their blood.

And when it’s over and every name has been scratched off the list, Billy makes his way to a canyon and jumps, and just before he hits the ground reality shifts around him. Billy sheds his human likeness and spreads his wings as he descends: down, down, down.

He gathers the souls of his list once more and sets himself to work.

“Just think,” Billy says, smirking and flashing fang as he reaches into Brady’s chest and grabs a lung, “If you’d just left little John Tunstall alone, none of us’d be here.” He punctuates ‘here’ with a quick yank – pulling Brady’s lung from his chest, the man trying desperately to scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marking complete, but more may always be added later. I'm still in the middle of reading Pat Garrett's biography of Billy so who knows what that will inspire me to write, lol.


End file.
